Saturday, January 17, 2009

Not Acceptable

Title 4, Chapter 1, Section3 of US Flag Code: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Watch it Pat, you may be labeled by the left as Unpatriotic. I bet you're one of those people who believe archaic thoughts like the flag is just a piece of cloth. And I also bet you're one of those people who believe that the flag represents the nation and should be honored for the sake of those who defended it, died for it, and were buried under it.

Flag code aside, it offends me that anyone would appropriate the flag of our country for their own use. I doubt Obama actually was behind it - I suspect it was a money grubbing commercialist!

The flag is a symbol of our country, not a symbol of Obama (or any other politician). It stands for our country, our philosophy, our democracy, our union, not one individual person.

This is NOT art, it is crass commercialism and reminds me of despotic rulers like Saddam Hussein or Castro or (god forbid, I'm going to say it -) Hitler who place their own images above the country they are serving. They are supposed to serve the country - not the other way around.

The soldiers who had that flag draped over their coffins after dying in war probably never counted on that symbol being appropriated for such a use. I would suspect many veterans would be offended, too.

nice work Pat. For someone who continually fills her blog with the ideology of patriotism and the protection of American ideals....you choose to CENSOR those who don't agree with you, very nice. Its nice to see that censorship is still alive and well in the conservative value system.

blogs are public, meaning you are putting YOUR views out to the entire world....if you can't accept dissenting opinions, why don't you just password protect your blog? I'm sure you'd still have many readers amongst friends and family who'd agree with you.

I know you like to quote the Wall Street Journal and National Review to build credibility for your viewpoints, but your bias is thinly veiled, and the omission of my post only serves to reveal the obvious....you absorb and regurgitate what you already believe and dismiss (or omit) what you already disbelieve.

I am liberal, and like to test my beliefs against those who don't think as i do. I mistakenly thought this was a forum for discussion and debate with educated conservatives, but apparently its just another bitter conservative propaganda forum.

As a veteran I find it very offensive to place an image, any image, on the American Flag. I served this nation that flag respresents, and unfortunatley I personally know some who died while serving this nation that flag represents (and that includes law enforcement officers and fire fighters).

For respect to the families of those I know who died I won't mention their names. One was a sergeant major who was once in my Army Reserve unit. He left the unit and went to to to unit in Arkansas. The last time I saw him I was in Ft Bliss, Texas going through a school, and he had come down to see one of his soldiers graduate from aother school. I was taking trash to a dumpster and looked as he was driving past. Sergeant Major saw me, turned around, came back, and we talked for almost a half hour. He died in Iraq.

One was a regular army staff sergeant I worked with for about three weeks after I was called to active duty. His unit was sent to Iraq. He died when a helicopter he was on was shot down over Fallujah.

One of my duties, while on active duty, was training soldiers who were going to Iraq and Afghanistan. I later received news that two died as a result of an IED explosion, and one died as a result of sniper fire.

Another soldier, I didn't know, but his father use to do plumbing work on my house. And that's only the ones I know about.

If you have ever been, or have a chance to be on a military installation, around 1700 hours (5:00 p.m. civilian time) you've witness or will witness a ceremony called "Retreat".

During "Retreat" all vehicular and foot traffic comes to a stand still (on an Army installation, the driver will exit the vehicle). The person will face the flag, or toward the direction of the music if the flag isn't visible, and salute of place the right hand over the heart if in civilian clothes) and hold salute until the last note of the music is played.

This "Retreat" is the lowering of the Flag at the end of the duty day. It's a simple ceremony, but it has a powerful meaning behind it. It's meant to reflect upon day, to pay respect to the Flag and nation, and to pay homage to fallen comrades. (And as you can see, I don't take the last reason lightly.)

Then later on in the evening is the playing of "Taps", and that raises this issue, for me, to a lot higher level.

Pat - Understood. And if i can recall my deleted comment, it was similar to:

"Your posts are often thoughtful, educated, and exibit some sense of open-mindedness.

Posts like this, however, expose an underlying unabated bias, anger, and simple-mindedness."

That seems pretty tame in my mind, but that doesn't really matter. So, if you found that offensive, i apologize. It wasn't intended to be hurtful, simply an honest opinion. I think whenever you post thoughtful opinions from the conservative viewpoint, there is something to be gleaned from those posts, but honestly, this and other posts on your blog simply come across as bitter and an attempt to throw a wet blanket on the public's enthusiasm for a president-elect for whom you don't support. Again, this isn't intended to be personal, just constructive criticism of this blog-post.

And to Steve: I honor anyone who's served to defend our country. My gandfather served 3 years in WWII, including D-day. My father served in vietnam, and it breaks my heart to see how it has forever altered his life.

That all being said, we have to be logical in our understanding of the letter-of-the-law and the spirit-of-the-law. Pat stated the letter of the law. The spirit of the law, i believe, intends to prevent the misuse and degrading of the flag for the sole purpose of benefitting or promoting an organization or person. Do any of us really think that the person who makes a rally sign with Obama's face/name over the background of a flag is willingly intending to degrade the flag for the sole purpose of promoting Obama? Or are they likely without knowledge of the violation? In other words, well-intentioned, but ignorant of the law. I'm assuming anyone who's putting Obama's name or face on top of the image of a flag, on a rally sign, t-shirt, coffee mug, button, or whatever, is simply promoting their support and enthusiasm for Obama AND our country, not attempting to defy the law and degrade or disrespect our flag. Right? So, fine, give the seller of these goods a ticket of reprimand, but to suggest that there's some unpatriotic or malicious intent seems a bit overboard.

I see you point. I asked Mike about it (knowing he'd know Flag Code - military Dad and former boy scout and all) and he said yep - can't mess with it in anyway if it's a real deal 3 dimensional flag - even if tiny and on a toothpick! I also agree some things should be sacred.

Oh I'm quite sure Obama is not 'behind' any of it - pretty sure he's busy on other stuff, right? ;)

But that other guy is prolly right - they were probably ignorant about flag code. Perhaps someone in the parade in charge will make sure they're stopped in the future, etc.

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I am a Conservative writer and high school English teacher in Shreveport and also work as a free-lance proofreader. My biography of Cammie Henry will be published in 2018. I've been published at The American Thinker, The Shreveport Times, The Bossier Press Tribune and had photographs published in Bayou Bucks magazine, The Forum, and other local publications. I like dogs better than most people.